Offsetting "hair" particles from their emitting mesh
Answer taken from here. It's a bit of a clunky solution.

Say you have used an object as hair particle on a mesh.



To offset its position from the mesh you have to first switch from using an Object as hair particle to using a Path.



Once in the Path settings change the Start value. The larger the number the more it will be offset from the mesh. Once you have an acceptable value switch back to using an Object as hair particle.